Wednesday, June 5, 2013

RCC #5 - Rice Cooker Butter Cake

This is yet another new addition to my rice cooker cake creations! I was planning to do a new flavour of rice cooker cake after receiving so many positive feedbacks for my rice cooker banana cake. It's amazing how many people are interested to "bake" cakes using the rice cooker!

Then I happened to see this steamed butter cake from HomeKreations, and I thought this is it! My rice cooker banana cake was also inspired by her steamed banana cake recipe, so I am quite confident that if I adapt this recipe from her, it will work out well again. So I looked at her steamed butter cake recipe, decided to take 3/4 of the ingredients and add in a little baking powder, then cooked it in the rice cooker for 1 hour (62 minutes to be exact).Here is the result, doesn't it look just like a moon-crater cake from outer space?

The omnipresent little hand of my baby girl, always appearing at the right time to touch my cake!

This is a very simple yet delicious butter cake, I assure you it doesn't taste like a steamed cake at all, in fact it can even pass off as a baked cake if you don't look at its golden brown crunchy crust and the moon-crater-like surface. This recipe is highly recommended, try it if you have a rice cooker at home and if you would like to try rice cooker baking for the first time. This cake is made from a toshiba ricecooker (model RC10L-MI, 5.5 cup capacity) without baking function.[Important : I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I do, and I would be happy if you could give credit where credit is due, and link back to this post if you do make this cake and share it on your blog or facebook. Remember plagiarism is not the best form of flattery.]Recipe adapted from Roz@HomeKreations, ingredients reduced to 3/4 and steaming method changed from steamer to rice cooker.Ingredients3 eggs 90g castor sugar (just nice, not too sweet)140g cake flour, sifted (original recipe used superfine flour)3/4 tsp baking powder (not present in original recipe)1/2 tbsp ovalette165g unsalted butter2 tbsp condensed milk (v impt, not to be omitted)3/4 tsp vanilla essence
** 1 tbsp of plain yoghurt or milk ** as per reader suggestion.

Method1. Beat eggs, sugar (and ovalette if using) until it becomes thick and fluffy, about 2-3 min using cake-mixer on highest speed. Add in sifted flour and baking powder and mix well using spatula.2. In a separate bowl, use cake-mixer to beat butter, condensed milk and vanilla essence until fluffy.3. Add in butter mixture into the egg mixture little by little and mix very briefly using cake-mixer on lowest speed. Do not over-mix.4. Pour the cake batter into the lightly-greased rice cooker pot, press "COOK" and allow it to cook for 1 hour. (In my case, I pressed "COOK" 3 times. Each time my rice cooker has finished cooking, it will beep and automatically switch to "KEEP WARM" mode, so I just have to press "CANCEL" and press "COOK" again. It took me 29 min + 17 + 16 min = 62 min in total. This is a cake that works in a rice cooker without the cake baking function. Note that cooking time may vary based on the capacity of your rice cooker. Mine has a 5.5 cup capacity.)

5. Allow the cake to cool for a while, before turning it out. (The cake should flip out easily in a split second even without using a knife to loosen the edges.)

Notes:- The original recipe asked for 1/2 tbsp ovalette, which is a sponge cake stabiliser / cake emulsifier commonly found in Singapore and Malaysia, and frequenty used in sponge cakes to give a light, fluffy texture. I used to have ovalette brought back from Singapore, but it has long expired and I have thrown it away. But I remember reading somewhere that condensed milk can achieve the same effect as cake emulsifier, so instead of using 1.5 tbsp condensed milk which is the amount required after reducing to 3/4, I used 2 tablespoonfuls and it worked quite well for me, the texture of the cake was not dense at all. - This recipe also requires the use of superfine flour as it has a high ratio of butter+sugar to flour. I used cake flour since I can't find superfine flour (superlite flour/top flour) in Belgium. If you don't have cake flour, you can substitute 140g cake flour with 116g of plain flour plus 24g of cornstarch /corn flour, and then sift it together a few times. - For those of you who wants to try this cake without cake-mixer, it maybe possible since HomeKreations did not state whether to beat by hand or by mixer, but if you are beating by hand, you would have to beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale yellow in step 1, and in step 3, make sure you fold and mix the egg mixture and butter mixture thoroughly. The batter is quite thick and not so fluid, hence I found it better to use a cake-mixer at low speed to mix for a few seconds in step 3.

I had a little scuffle with His Majesty (my 4 year old boy) while trying to take pictures of the cake in our garden. The sun was shining (finally) and I wanted to grap hold of this good opportunity to take some nice pictures in natural lighting. But he insisted on taking a bite of the 2 slices of cake, before I could even snap a picture. In fact he had already eaten a few slices a while ago, so I flew into a rage and I ordered him to stand under a tree. Papa who had just come home had to act as mediator and later papa told me that he couldn't stop crying because he also wanted to be in the picture. So here is a picture of His Majesty, enjoying the cake while still in tears. :pNow you know, how difficult it is for me to take any pictures without any "drama" from either His Majesty or Her Majesty! :pUpdated on 9 Sept 2013 - photo link of reader Muthia's rice cooker butter cake, posted below in the comments section on 12 July 2013. Thank you Muthia for the link! :)

On 3 Jan 2014, HS Ong sent me a lovely email with a few photos of her rice cooker banana cake and butter cake baked using the baking function of her Tefal 10-cup rice cooker. She doubled the recipe and it took her 1 hour. Here is a picture of her rice cooker butter cake. Thank you HS for your positive feedback!

66 comments:

I concur that your rice cooker steamed cake does not taste like steamed cake. My friends/colleagues were stunned when I told them you steamed the banana cake you brought at our housewarming. It was fabulous. I'm convinced to have a go at this, but unsure as to whether my 17 yr old rice cooker will work. Your toshiba looks high tech to me with beep signals and what nots *sigh*

I have briefly seen the exterior of your rice cooker, is that "National" brand? Does it have a non-stick rice pot? Wow, it must be a good rice cooker to last that long! Even if it doesn't beep or turn off cooking by itself, you should give it a try since you know roughly how long it will take. Although if yours is a 10-cup capacity, it will have a larger base and hence take a shorter time than mine.

I have read comments of others who have tried the banana cake, for one of the ladies, even though it took her 2 hours from start to end as she had to wait for the cooker to cool off before she could press cook again, it still turned out well. So give it a try, you never know!

Hello there, i just realized i didn't put my name on my comment before. i really want to try this recipe. can i omit baking powder or any raising agent and use meringue and fold in technique instead to raise the cake? thanks in advance.

Hi Muthia,You can, if you really don't have baking powder at home, but I won't recommend it. This is a butter cake, the result will be denser if you leave out the raising agent. The original recipe even used 1/2 tbsp ovalette (cake emulsifier) which I replaced with baking powder.

I bake the cake based on your recipe with 10 cup capacity rice cooker. However,after 15 minutes rice cooker have turn to "keep warm" mode and I have to stuck small piece of cardboard at the rice cooker switch to force it to "cook" mode. After about 10 minutes, I notice a burn smell coming out from the rice cooker. The cake still looks like what you show above but does not taste good. Argh, what have gone wrong?

Hi Kent How Teh,This cake is based on a 5.5 cup capacity rice cooker. Your rice cooker is too big, that's why it cooked so fast. May I know if your rice cooker is a non-stick japanese microcomputer rice cooker? Because normally it shouldn't be burnt after just 30 min....

I think you should increase the recipe proportionately (say double the amount) to suit your rice cooker capacity and since every rice cooker is different, it may take less than 1 hour for yours, you have to watch it carefully. From experience, once I could smell the aroma of the cake cooking, I knew the cake was cooked. Good luck!

Hey kent and miss b, my rice cooker is 10 cup capasity too, and when i baked this cake the warm mode turned pretty quick too. and too turn back on cook mode you have to wait about 5-10 minutes or you will broke your rice cooker. I turn the cook mode back on about 4-5 times until the toothpick inserted comes out clean. i use rice cooker cosmos capacity 10 cups and 180 watt. i hope it'll help :)

Hi Muthia, Thanks for your feedback, really appreciate it. I guess every rice cooker is different. Some rice cookers like mine which is a Toshiba RC10L-MI, you can press "Cook" again immediately after it switches to "Keep Warm" mode, and it never gets burnt.

The advice to Kent How Teh is, the timing really depends on your rice cooker, don't follow strictly, what I give is just a guide based on my experience with Toshiba, you would have to observe your rice cooker and adapt the recipe accordingly. :)

Hi i just made this cake with a lil bit modification here and there. and i didn't put any raising agent and the cake turned just fine. thanks for inspiring me. I took a photo of my cake in case you wanna see it and here's the link https://fbcdn-photos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/1013193_10151699513337180_1202534203_n.jpg ;)

Hi Muthia,Thanks for your feedback, your rice cooker butter cake looks great! I would encourage you to try RCC#4 and RCC#6, I think those 2 are quite easy and well worth trying. Have fun with rice cooker baking! :)

Hi Eric,If you dun have a cake mixer, I suggest you try my other 2 rice cooker recipes, the banana cakeor the moist chocolate cake. If yours has a bake button, of cos you can press that but the timing will be different. Good luck!

I am just wondering whether you know of any way to make the top of the cake (the yellow portion) looks nicer? (without putting frosting or cream etc to cover it) cause it looks really bumpy and hole-y and might not be very presentable as a "gift". Thanks! :)

Hi shermaine,Why don't you turn it around, the base should be pretty smooth, flawless and crusty too. Mine had a few tiny blemishes as there were few scratches at the base of my cooker pot. I always present my rice cooker cakes upside down by the way.Alternatively, if you want to cover the top, you can sprinkle with icing sugar or cocoa powder. Or do a pattern using a paper stencil (i got it at Daiso) like this http://everybodyeatswell.blogspot.be/2013/03/chocolate-fudge-birthday-cake.html

Don't sprinkle too much and as long as you don't flip it over. The top of this cake is so holey, I'm sure it will stick. You can cover it with chocolate flakes or shredded orange/lemon peel also. Another suggestion will be to use those glittering pens for cake deco to write or draw something. Or spread a layer of jam on top of the cake. The options are endless, just let your imagination run freely. :)

I tried the recipe with the full amount as my rice cooker is for 8-cup capacity. It turned out great!!! Initially I thought it won't as I'm using hand whisk and my rice cooker is of a cheap brand (Akira). But amazingly, after 1 hour, with the button keep turning to "keep warm"every few minutes, the cake turned out great. Each time it turned to "keep warm" mode I let it cool for few minutes b4 clicking it back to "cook" mode. Thanks for the recipe! Would love to share the picture but how do I send it to u?

Hi dkhor, Great to hear good news from you! Thanks in advance for willing to share your cake picture. :) You can send by email which is under my blogger profile under the contact, not putting it here cos otherwise robots/spammers will pick up the email address and spam my blog.

Hi can I use regular cane sugar or agave nectar? Also I am a novice baker, could you send me the recipe without using grams. I am use to cups/tsp/tbsp. Here is my email address: smjacal@gmail.com. Thank you. Sabrina

Castor sugar is finer than regular cane sugar, I believe. You can use regular cane sugar if you grind it in a food processor to make it finer, otherwise it is too coarse for making a butter cake. As for agave nectar, sorry but I have no experience with it.

Unlike you, I only measure my ingredients in grams with the help of a weighing scale, I am not used to measuring in cups. I usually encourage my readers to help themselves by searching on the web. Here are a few useful websites to help you in conversion:

Hi! I tried making your butter cake twice and both times turned out great! The first time it was a little dry and too sweet, so I modified the recipe and added a tablespoon of yoghurt and took away two tablespoons of caster sugar since I heard that yoghurt makes the cake more moist. The results were better and the cake was really soft. (Although it wasn't too sweet but I cleared that up by eating the cake with nutella, which imo tastes so much better!) . Like to thank you for this wonderful recipe since my house doesn't have an oven, and it only takes me 4 rounds of turning off and on the rice cooker. The time taken was around 20 to 30 minutes. Based on the comments I read I expected the time taken to be really long, so I was surprised when my cake was done so fast. I'll be trying your other cake recipes soon! :)

Hi phoebe,Thanks for your feedback. I am glad that you adapted the recipe according to your taste and preferences. This cake is actually slightly smaller than the steamed banana cake and the moist chocolate cake, so I'm not surprised it took a shorter time. The timing given is just a guideline and it varies based on the brand, model and capacity of your rice cooker, but the good thing is once you try out 1 cake and know the timing, the rest of the cakes will take around the same time.

It's 3am Bangkok time when I stumbled upon your blog. I am determined than ever to try except the man thinks baking a cake at this hour is crazy. Cake looks so good! Shall let you know how mine turns out since I'm certain that I have no baking DNA in me. :D

I dunno how to console you, Zanice. It's the first time someone complains to me that the recipe causes damage in the rice cooker, usually the cake will only get burnt if the rice cooker is not the fuzzy logic type. If your rice cooker is spoilt by just cooking for 20 min, which is not even long enough for cooking porridge, treat it as a blessing in disguise and get yourself a better rice cooker such as Toshiba, which will last you longer and you can cook nice cakes in it. This is my sincere advice.

Hi, I hope you can advise me on this. Each time I bake with my rice cooker (butter and banana cake – using yours and other recipe), I always have this problem – the cake is too oily (extremely oily) to consume, I have reduced the butter used and tried salted and unsalted butter but still have the same result. Skewer came out clean so the cake should be well cooked. There are times I ‘cook’ it again even after the beep and ended with slightly burn base but still an super duper oily cake. What is wrong

I'm using buffalo brand rice cooker with stainless steel pot and fit 10 cups rice. I tried the butter cake recipe. It turn "keep warm" just a few mins after cooking. And need to wait for about 10 mins to turn it back to "cooking".. Therefore I use something to make the button continues cooking. But after around 15 mins the cakes burned... Can please advise?

Pls refer to my faq on how to make rice cooker cakes. You are advised not to force the cook button just to continue cooking, if not you risk getting a burnt cake or damaging your rice cooker or both. There is a reason why your rice cooker doesn't allow you to re-press cook button immediately, just have to wait until you are allowed to do so.

Hi Miss B, thanks for your receipe! I've tried the rice cooker butter cake today but just wondering if the texture is supposed to be more dense. Mine was pretty dense and didn't rise as much. Was wondering if it was undercooked or the eggs I used were the normal ones instead of the xl ones. My rice cooker has the cake function and I baked it for 45mins. Thanks in advance!

Looks abit like yours but it was not spongey and its on the hard side when i touch it. I suspect that it might not be fully cooked as there were wet parts at certain part of the cake. When i flipped it out of the rice cooker, it came out easily but it was not brown and it was still dirty at the bottom of the pot. I kept it in the fridge overnight and the next day it was harder than ever. T.T

I used zojirushi 5 cup rice cooker. Yah first time doing rice cooker cake. My colleagues told me that rice cooker cakes tend to be more dense but yours look so fluffy! Yah I did beat until light and fluffy too.

Norina,Can't really say that rice cooker cakes tend to be more dense, are you comparing with steamed cakes or oven-baked ones? It depends on the recipe and the rice cooker used. Usually recipes that do well in rice cookers are steamed cake recipes. Why don't you try the banana cake or moist chocolate cake recipe 1st. The Z brand is a good rice cooker, I think you just need more practice.

Your comments made me revisit my recipe from top to bottom to see where is the ambiguity. Beat butter....beat eggs....nowhere is it mentioned that butter has to be melted or eggs have to be separated, right :(

Hi.Thank you for a wonderful great easy recipe to follow. Just baked this morning and it turned out fabulous. Thank you.Just a question as I am very new to baking. For step 2, you mentioned to beat till fluffy. I used a hand mixer and beat for almost 10 mins and the Colour of the butter turned to slightly paler yellow and it was lighter. Or should I have continued further and beat till it is as light as cotton wool? Appreciate your advice. Once again this is brilliant! Thank you :)

Hi felicia,1st of all, thank you for yoir feedback. Actually 10 min is good enough. If your cake turned out with a light texture and not dense and oily like what some people had , then you were doing it right in terms of creaming, and you probably have a good rice cooker to begin with :)

I tried baking this many times. It is the most delicious butter cake ever. We use a panasonic sr-mm18n model with 10L capacity. Also tried the banana cake. So simple that my father (who never bakes) tried it out himself and it was also delicious. Recipe that can never fail!

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